I'm Here Fur You
by Jacky Morgan
Summary: Nepeta is sent out to find Karkat, who managed to get himself lost in the meteor. When she stumbles upon him, Karkat realizes that the kitty-cat shipper girl is a lot more than she appears. Katnep, one-shot.


Nepeta loved Karkat, and there was no doubt she held a great deal of reverence for everything he did. She was indeed one of the very few trolls in the meteor that considered him a good leader. She was in fact so doggedly loyal to him, some trolls just wondered if she'd banged her head at some point earlier in her life. Nobody except the kitty-cat shipper girl believed Karkat do be a "flawless" leader, nor did they follow every command he made as wordlessly as she did.

As much as Nepeta liked Karkat however, she also enjoyed her daily three-hour naps, which were in fact in such a light sleep, someone sneezing would wake her up. This meant that a verbal fight between Vriska and Karkat would certainly be enough to wake Nepeta up, and it was during one of these dormancy bouts Nepeta heard Karkat and Vriska fighting about the pink aliens Karkat wanted to troll. Although she was a little drowsy, she could clearly hear and make sense of what the two were saying.

_"I can't see why you want to help them," said Vriska, her voice dripping with acrimony, "I mean, they're just a couple of complete losers. If we help them, we'll be handholding them throughout their entire session. And you know why we ended up losing the prize. It was their fault. ALL their fault."_

_"I don't care," Karkat had hissed in reply, "we're going to troll them, and that's that. I'm the leader around here. Not you. Go hang around in a fucking spider web, and stop sitting around freaking everybody the fuck out."_

_"Doing this is stupid. I can't see why you want to do this. Oh well...when you're having some insane amount of trouble getting through to you, don't say I didn't warn you. Because I'm warning you now, you're gonna regret this. Them's the breaks."_

Nepeta had tuned both of them out after Karkat started throwing insults at Vriska. She didn't want to hear anyone fighting, and she wanted to get a decent amount of sleep without any more interruption (which Karkat could certainly supply). She hoped Karkat wouldn't feel hurt by Vriska though-if he was upset, she was upset. Karkat didn't like admitting the full scope of his emotions to her-or really, anyone-but she was good at detecting his subliminal feelings, due to her shipping expertise. Karkat tended to let his insecurity and care he had for his friends dribble out when he wasn't being incredibly defensive with himself and his feelings. This meant he might get upset, but if he was given some space for a little while, he'd probably calm down, and he'd obfuscate his feelings the whole time with aggravated aberrance. That's how he usually handled his problems. Nepeta fell asleep again after that.

* * *

A light shaking on Nepeta's shoulder quickly dragged her out of her catnap. As Nepeta got up, yawning and stretching of course, she looked around, and saw the other trolls doing whatever they usually did, and Terezi making a sneer in their general direction.

"Come on, get up," the Terezi whispered, "your 'mewrail' wants you up. Now."

"Why?"

"He'll tell you soon."

There was some disconcertion in the computer room as an inaudible wave of whispers occupied the room. Terezi groaned. You needed to beat these people with a stick if you wanted them to listen to you or care about a problem that concerned all of them.

"Look at them," Terezi muttered to Nepeta, "look how well they pay attention to the problem at hand."

"What purroblem?"

"Oh, Karkat again. He started fighting with Vriska, and she pissed him off. That moron stormed off into the dark. And that was three hours ago. I'm pretty sure he's lost, but nobody wants to go find him. I'm okay with doing it, but I can't see too well in the-"

"Ahem. Pardon me," a robust voice suddenly broke out. The entire room was completely void of noise for the smallest moment. Then, the focus that had been given dissolved into slightly audible noise again.

"EXCUSE ME!"

Every troll in the room stopped whatever they were doing once Equius had raised his voice. They all looked at him with a faux sense of recognition, with the exception of Nepeta, who actually did respect him (that is, she feared him), and Terezi, who was blind (and therefore couldn't look at him).

"Thank you for your attention," Equius continued, "I trust you all know that Karkat is currently not in vicinity, and that he has taken some kind of sojourn somewhere to get over his anger. However, due to the long amount of time that he had been gone, it is reasonable to assume something has happened to him. Somebody needs to find him. Are they any people who would like to attempt finding the location of him and thereafter bringing him back?"

There was a silence in the room.

"Nepeta."

"Yes?"

"Go find him. No. Go find him _please_."

Equius gestured at the transportalizer Karkat had taken his leave by, and proceeded to glare at the other trolls. His gaze was absolutely ghastly, and seemed to permeate with the idea that if anybody where to disobey the owner of such an icy glower, they would surely find at least half of their bones broken. Not that, Terezi noted with a groan, that they would care. It was more than likely because they didn't like having Nepeta, of all people, put in charge of something.

Once Nepeta was safely out of the computer room via the transportalizer, Equius returned to the robot he was building, as if nothing had ever happened.

Terezi flared her nostrils. Well, there went Nepeta. Although Equius wasn't particularly frightening to her, fighting with him was a genuine pain in the ass. The ping-ponging of yeses and noes was enough to annoy even the most patient of the trolls on the meteor. Terezi wasn't in the mood to deal with him, given how she had other problems to tackle with Dave. Besides, Equius indirectly brought up a valid point-Nepeta wouldn't stop looking for Karkat. Terezi had to admit that she was a diehard fangirl of his, and her obsession would hopefully lead to Karkat's location. Of course, Terezi would've preferred finding Karkat herself-but leaving everyone alone in the computer room was a bad idea. Plus, she didn't know how helpful her fantastic sense of smell would be in the thick licorice darkness that made up most of the meteor. She needed to colors to see. Picking up Karkat's scent would be difficult in that darkness.

Besides, Nepeta navigated through the dark hunting hoofbeasts and whatnot all of the time. This would be _easy_ for her.

* * *

Nepeta had dove into the dark abyss of the meteor with considerable vigor, eager to find Karkat. However, when she realized that she ran into it without a flashlight, she knew (even with her night vision) it'd be difficult to navigate, and she felt silly for brazenly running into the dark. It was too late now to go back though, and Nepeta decided to start calling to name, so she could hopefully trace his voice and find him that way.

"Karkat?"

Nepeta stumbled around in the darkness, trying to locate her grumpy comrade. He was nowhere to be seen, but of course, he wouldn't be seen in such profound darkness. Nepeta's job was to find Karkat, and she wouldn't stop looking until she found him. How hard could it be, anyway? The meteor wasn't that big, Nepeta figured, and she knew there were places some people knew of and others didn't. He had to be somewhere close by.

"Karkat? Where did you go?"

Still, nothing. It was so dark in this unlit part of the meteor, and after about fifteen minutes of bumbling around in the dark and calling his name, Nepeta sat down on a chair she'd just collided her foot into. Wherever he was, she was sure she'd find him eventually. She just knew she would. Why else would her moirail have suggested her for the job? The great thing about Equius was that he knew she'd get the job done, and he had no trouble convincing everyone that was the case. He was so polite about it too! Nepeta smiled. She knew that all of her etiquette lessons had paid off.

As Nepeta sat down sheathing and unsheathing her claws, she thought she heard something. Stopping for a moment, she strained to listen. It sounded like mumbling. As if someone was yelling at themselves. Getting out of the chair and moving toward the sound, she stopped again. She could definitely hear mumbling now.

"Karkat? Is that you?"

Still, no reply. Inching a little further, she stopped, every time she made a step. Slowly but surely, she stalked closer to the mumbling, until she could make out the speaker's voice.

"…and I don't know why they won't just listen. I know what I'm doing. But they don't. To them, I'm a bumbling idiot who doesn't know what he's doing."

Nepeta's tail twitched. She found him.

"I know what we need to do next. I know _exactly_ what we need to do next. Sure, they pretend they don't fucking care about me being a leader, but I know they wouldn't know how to do shit without me. They need me. They need me to tell them what to do, and to help them actually get shit done. I'm their fucking spearhead."

Nepeta slowly moved forward, until she could make out Karkat's lanky form. Waiting in the darkness for about a minute, Nepeta prepared her pounce.

"They're all so fucking stupid. They don't know what I've been through, or will, and—"

His monologue was cut off as Nepeta attacked him from behind. The green-blooded troll grinned as she pinned him on the ground under her hands, knocking God-only-knows-whats around, sending a sound of clamors and bangs around the two trolls' general area.

"I found you!"

"Nepeta? What in the name of the most fertile Mother Grub are you doing out in the middle of a dark-as-fuck meteor? Someone sent you out, didn't they? Who was it? Who the fuck was it? As your leader I demand to know!"

"Equius! But everyone wanted to know where you were hiding, so they sent meowt figure out where you were!"

"Of _course_ that bastard sent you here. Who else would use coercion to send a spastic cave-dweller to find me? He probably asked you to grab him fifty million more towels while you were out here too so he could quell his weird-ass sweating crises."

"Karkat," said Nepeta, taking her hands of Karkat's chest and lowering her eyebrows, "you were gone fur three hours. Three. That's a long time. People were starting to wonder if you died, or were kidnapped by fireflies, or-"

"They probably wanted to get rid of you for two hours, so they didn't have some overzealous cat role-player playing with their shoes. Now get the fuck off me. I'm pissed about practically everything. Don't become the next thing to be shipped on the Piss Express."

"_Shipped_?" Nepeta chirped excitedly, flicking her tail around wildly in excitement.

"Damn it," Karkat muttered, "I hate using that word with you. You know what I mean, come on."

"I was just kidding, Karkat!"

"I'm not in the mood for your stupid cat fucking games."

Nepeta giggled, but stopped herself so she could attempt consoling with her crabby compatriot. He needed consolation. Desperately.

"Did you get lost? You were gone for a while."

"No, of course not. How could I get lost here?"

"Uh, it's huge. And dark in places like this."

"Well, I didn't. It's just...hard to move around in the dark, with all this meteor shit everywhere. I was just having problems with Vriska, and I had to leave that room before my think pan cells melted. That's all. I'm not fucking lost."

"Whenefur Equius was furstrated, he talked to me about it. Why don't you talk to me?"

"No."

"Aw, why not? Maybe it will make you feel better!"

"_No_. I don't want to hold a 'let's make Karkat feel better' role-playing session with you."

"Karkat, you don't know until you try! Also, I won't role-play when I'm trying to help you. I purromise."

Karkat sighed. He tried moving his arm, but Nepeta wouldn't let him up.

"Fine. If it'll make you happy, fine, I'll talk for you. That cobweb-residing bitch think I'm a shitty leader because I think we should troll the pink aliens, you know, to make sure they actually succeed in their session. Without us, they're doomed, I think. But Vriska doesn't think so. No, God forbid KARKAT actually comes up with a decent, logical idea! She doesn't think I make a good leader, so she doesn't even want to consider any ideas I come up with. Probably because they'll actually work. At least, this one probably will. She just can't give the aliens-and us-a chance. She just doesn't want to listen to me. And neither does anyone else. I am so sick of everyone no caring, and no one listening."

"That's apawlling! She shouldn't be so rude! Whatefur you think is right is probably what'll work! That's why you're our leader, right?"

""She might be right, though. Maybe I'm a shitty leader. But we won't know that until we troll the aliens. Vriska needs to give them a chance here. Okay, sure, maybe we'll be holding their pink, slimy hands throughout their whole fucking session. But even if they can't fend for themselves, being the useless shithead's they've proved themselves to be so far, they still have a chance. Now get off of me."

Nepeta took her hands off of Karkat, releasing his upper body from her iron grip, but she kept this torso locked underneath her knees.

"Um, if it means anything to you," she began, "I fur one think you're a great leader."

Karkat sighed.

"At least one of you self-absorbed, ungrateful bulge-lickers has to think so. Congratulations, Nepeta. You've just rose up to the prestigious position of being the only person who wants to cooperate with me. You win a fucking boonbuck for your compliance."

Karkat didn't say anything after that. He just stayed there, trapped beneath Nepeta, not saying anything. The Rogue of Heart got up off of Karkat at that point. She let him stand up and rub the wrists that had their circulation cut off by Nepeta's novelly strong grasp. Karkat didn't say anything else though. He just stood there.

Nepeta's heart sank like a cannon-blasted boat. She really wanted to make him feel better and…it just didn't seem to work. Nepeta wanted Karkat happy more than anything in the world, and it depressed her seeing Karkat like this. Maybe she could strike up some sort of casual conversation? She wasn't sure. She always put his needs in front of hers, and although it bothered her whenever she tiptoed around her sympathies, she knew about all the problems he has facing, because he was a team leader, after all. She felt absolutely abhorrent knowing Vriska, who was already mean and did many terrible things, was abashing Karkat. She wanted Karkat to feel better, more than anything, but for once, she realized no words she could say would really do anything.

She got up, and, walking over to Karkat, put her hand on his shoulder, as if it doing it wouldn't make Karkat yell at her or push her away, and she really was just trying to make him feel better. To her utter shock, he didn't fight back, flinch, or even snarl an uncivil response. He just stood there, his eyes cast into the darkness at his feet.

"It's o-okay," she said, stuttering a bit, "I'll always think you're a furnomenal leader."

"Of course _you_ do."

Nepeta giggled. And Karkat groaned.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! I hope you liked this story, it's a little something I've been working on for a while now that I never got around to finishing.

I'd also like to personally thank both Chocolate-SugarCube and armabeddons for beta-reading this for me.


End file.
